Kehi and Palmer - City of Port Phillip

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450 Balthasar Kehi and Lisa Palmer The rule of our ancestors, the way of our ancestors: ‘the rooms have walls, the field has the boundary’, [that is, we have gone over the walls and the boundaries of most sacred and enchanted world]. The next afternoon we had a meeting with ten old women sharing with us their wisdom and knowledge about pregnancy, childbirth, and the onemonth period of intensive care for the mother and the baby after the birth, the so-called ‘sitting by the fire’ (hatuka hai). During this time the baby is not allowed to be taken outside the house until the hosai-lawarik oan rite, that is, the rite of bringing out of the house the baby for the first time and presenting him/her to the whole community, during which time he/she is ritually blessed with sprinkles of sacred water in order to grow in matak malirin (good health and productive life energy). We then closed the previous evening’s discussion with the ritual slaughter of a pig and shared a communal meal cooked by the men. Following this we underwent a ritual purification and empowerment ceremony called kaba in which the crunched betel leaves and areca nuts paste was ground up and pressed into our upper abdomen (heart) and the crown of our heads (where it was blown on) before we (and the surrounding environment) were sprinkled with sacred water infused with drops of the sacrificed pig’s blood. The kaba was intended to be enabling and restorative—making us free (mamuk) from attack by dangerous essences and allowing us, and the space around us, to be full with matak malarin (good health and productive life energy). The kaba was also intended to open one’s heart (loke hirus) and to open one’s mind (loke neon) to the matak malirin, that is to think and feel clearly, to have a peaceful and clear mind (neon mon, where mon refers to a clear pool of water) and a clean heart (laran mos). What follows is an account of these days and the profound wisdom shared with us during the period. The political and historical geography of the original Koba Lima Koba Lima are Tetun Terik or Tetun Belu or Tetun Los words, the language spoken in different parts of East Timor and West Timor especially along the borders, which literally means Five (Lima) Baskets (Koba). A koba is used for (1) putting in betel nuts, silver and gold coins used as offerings to deities as well as to ancestors and other invisible spirits (such as the custodians or owners of the land, water, or forest) during religious ceremonies at the main pillar in sacred houses, at sacred springs or sacred lands, (2) putting betel nuts and lime to respectfully and amicably welcome guests, (3) putting money, such as silver coins or gold coins for respectful and amicable exchanges during
Hamatak halirin 451 the traditional marriage and other communal ceremonies. For people of Koba Lima in both West Timor (Loro Toba: loro = sun, toba = setting or sleeping) and East Timor (Loro Sae: loro = sun, sae = rise), koba (along with tais or hand-woven textiles) play an important role in strengthening respectful and amicable relationships between individuals and between communities, and between the communities and the invisible spirits (deities, spirits of the ancestors, spirits of water, land, and forests as well as mountains). Symbolically and historically, Koba Lima refers to a sacred geography involving a coalition of five Tetun speaking mountain kingdoms in the areas along the borders of East Timor and Indonesian West Timor. These kingdoms are Fatumea, Dakolo, Lookeu, Sisi and Mau Demu. Initially there was only the kingdom of Fatumea, then a coalition of three was formed by three brothers called Uma Tolu (uma = house, tolu = three) or Koba Tolu (but better known as Uma Tolu) consisting of Fatumea, Lookeu and Dakolo. 4 Sisi and Mau Demu are wife-taking sacred houses (feto sawa) for Fatumea, Lookeu and Dakolo who relate to each other as husar (literally connected by the umbilical cord) or maun-alin (older brother-younger brother). Fatumea, Lookeu and Dakolo are wife-giving sacred houses (uma mane) for Sisi and Mau Demu. A political coalition of Koba Lima was then formed based on wife-giver/wifetaker marriage relationships. Unlike the clan sacred house (uma lulik) of the four other kingdoms, the sacred house of Fatumea has remained at the same place on top of a red rock (fatu = rock, mea or mean = red) from the beginning. This sacred house is called uma metan Fatumea (uma = house, metan = black) and uma kiik nakroma (uma = house, kiik = small, nakroma = bright). The sacred houses of the other kingdoms have been moved to different places due to wars and the colonial division of Timor. The sacred house of Lookeu, for example, has been moved to five different locations. The first (the original) and the second ones are in Portuguese Timor or the present day East Timor (that is in Foho Lor Lookeu and in Hali Lulik, the origin of Hali Lulik in West Timor), the third, fourth, and the fifth are in West Timor (Wani Kroti, Au Ren and Batulu). But from time to time the people of Lookeu go to the site of the original sacred house in Foho Lor Lookeu for communal ceremonies. The largest kingdom in terms of the size of its land and the number of its people is Lookeu, which consisted of territories ruled by nine dato (the nobles below liurai = king) before the colonial division of Timor. The second largest kingdom is Dakolo. When Timor was divided by the Dutch and the Portuguese in 1859 Fatumea, a half of Lookeu, and a half Dakolo remained 4 Grijzen 1904; Pélissier 1996. In Grijzen (1904) Lookeu is spelled Lokeoe, while in Pélissier (1996) it is spelled Loquéo. We consider the correct spelling to be Lookeu. In Tetun Los, loo = settlement, Lookeu is an abbreviated version of ‘Lookakeu’ meaning ‘settlement of pine trees’. Other nearby places are called Loofoun (‘new settlement’), Loonuna (or Loonunak = ‘settlement of the nunak tree’), Loofehan (‘settlement of the flat land’) and Lootebok (‘settlement of the wooden plate’).
Page 1 and 2: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Vo
Page 3 and 4: Hamatak halirin 447 of a ‘cyclica
Page 5: Hamatak halirin 449 sun (loro) bein
Page 9 and 10: Hamatak halirin 453 human being, no
Page 11 and 12: Spring water and the spirit world o
Page 13 and 14: Hamatak halirin 457 of the dead sev
Page 15 and 16: Hamatak halirin 459 as explained be
Page 17 and 18: Hamatak halirin 461 covered with a
Page 19 and 20: Hamatak halirin 463 well-being, and
Page 21 and 22: Hamatak halirin 465 story tells of
Page 23 and 24: Hamatak halirin 467 tasting hot and
Page 25 and 26: Hamatak halirin 469 Acknowledgments
Page 27: Hamatak halirin 471 Palmer, Lisa 20

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